Eating Lunch: Vintage Photos from The Library of Congress

As we wrap up Lunch Week here on The Kitchn, we thought some historical visual browsing would be fun. These photos come courtesy of the Library of Congress' photo archives on Flickr, and they show ordinary lunch hours—those midday breaks given for rest and sustenance, enjoyed alone or with other people. It's the same now as it was then.

TOP ROW1 Midsummer Day, Bronx Park, between 1910 and 19152 French Officers at luncheon in field, between 1910 and 19153 Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, C. & N.W. R.R., Clinton, Iowa, April 19434 Men of the community of Pie Town, New Mexico eating at the barbeque, October 19405 Women workers of the assembly line at Douglas Aircraft Company's plant, Long Beach, California, October 1942

BOTTOM ROW6 C. & N.W. R.R., Mrs. Elibia Siematter, employed as a sweeper at the roundhouse, Clinton, Iowa, April 19437 Girl worker at lunch also absorbing California sunshine, Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, California, October 19428 Rice in a lunch of a sugar worker on a plantation, vicinity of Guanica, Puerto Rico, January 19429 Serving up the barbeque at the Pie Town, New Mexico, Fair, October 1940